To on the safe side and prevent from the mail to BPA with the paperwork to get misplaced (as it likes to get with the Royal Mail) or get severely delayed I decided to use the local DHL servicepoint in WH Smith and send it through them for £5.95.

This turned out to be a great idea. not only did it arrive for sure, it got to them on time (DHL states it arrives in 1-2 working days).  This morning I already received the necessary stuff back from the BPA, also considered myself lucky as they used the normal mail. I received my FAI National Parachute Certificate booklet with all the necessary stickers in it, minus the FS1 I received last week which I had to attach myself. I also received a new BPA card that now includes my FAI certificate number 108453.

To be honest this is probably not a very busy time for the BPA (I presume) as the skydiving season is slowly coming to an end. Nevertheless , kudos to the BPA.

So now I am a bit more official in skydiving in the UK

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Oh, what fun

Beside that the Friday night jumps will commence soon, preparations are under way as I speak (I mean write).

Stonehenge
Stonehenge	Stonehenge
Stonehenge	Stonehenge
Stonehenge	Stonehenge
Stonehenge	Stonehenge
Stonehenge	Stonehenge

Managed 7 juat the Netheravon DZ. Now all I am left to do is to get my FS1 licence as its needed in the UK for jumping in groups.

Didn’t take any photos, was a bit worried would get nicked as the DZ is situated on an active military base (technically its an airfield camp).

The container was repaired free of charge which is a big plus for Aerodyne even though there seemed to be a manufacturing fault to which they conceded. At least they fixed the problem and sent the container back to me, again, free of charge.

But there is a problem which I won’t follow-up on. There is a small discrepancy with the logo which was on the flap that had to be replaced.

Before the repair (08-Nov-2008)

After the repair (03-Mar-2009)

The blue colour of the arrow pointing down is not the navy blue colour it was before.

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I just hope its not because I forgot to enclose the service repair form. This is the current report from the DHL tracker:

See where it is now on Boxoh.

UPDATE (28-Nov-2008)

I have just checked te DHL tracking page and it says that my container should have arrived. However if you look closer it does look realy strange:

If this records actual time it left Wilmington and arrived in Orlando – how could it have taken 32 minutes when the distance is 1080 kilometres. That is some speed 2025 km/h. Well, of course, I don’t think thi sis wat happened. Any thoughts?

When the lady in Staples was helping me pack I kept on thinking that I am forgetting to post something, but I could not put my finger on exactly what. Considering I still had an disassembled container this morning I had to move fast so I unintentionally forgot to send the Aerodyne form that should be in the DHL package.

What can I say, ooops for the second time?

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All went well and on the third jump of the second day just as I exited the Cessna 206 I apparently managed to hook my rig on the side of the door which resulted in a nasty tear in my container on the reserve parachute flap. I am suspecting poor stitching but will have to send the whole thing to Florida to be fixed.

Here are photos of the my sad-looking Aerodyne Icon Sport container:

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Channel 4 has been showing adverts names »Difficult is worth doing« introducing skydivers jumping from an airplane and make formations in freefall and one canopy formation.
It columnated on May 29th 2008 when a live TV add was broadcast from the Spanish DZ Lillo at 20:10 local time (CET). After exiting the aircraft 16 jumpers made 5 consecutive formations in the shape of letters H-O-N-D-A.

Here is a flash film on the Honda Accord website made about the advert.

A documentary on the whole project was made. See it by clicking the Youtube link here.

The photo on top showing Padalček and myself.

The Z-Hills dropzone, called SkydiveCity, is located on the outskirts of Zephyrhills, a small town on the west side of Florida, 30 miles out of Tampa, FL.

At the DZ we met the other group based in Maribor, Slovenia. Some of the instructors from the SkyVenture tunnelcamp were also there a day earlier. Actually, there were only a few Maribor skydivers there as many more were yet to come during March. As I write these lines they are probably still there – hope you having a great time guys!!!

I managed to do just one jump, but that was fine. I found out what the DZ looks and feels like, it seemed very friendly and it is a very good candidate for next year’s skydiving pilgrimage to Florida. The only thing I thought was very inappropriate was the demand for spectators to pay a fee for watching the skydivers. I have not seen this anywhere else and I think it is wrong. The DZ should encourage visitors and they could get the revenue from selling food or at least refreshments of some kind.

As accommodation is concerned it felt a lot like a summer seaside camp. It has a camping area and its own mobile homes that skydivers can rent out. One small tip at this point: beware of the payphones on the DZ. They seem to not be to keen on returning change to you. In that respect DeLand was better as it had two phones you could use for free for local and toll free calls.

The visit to the Z-Hills DZ was also an opportunity to finally meet our colleague Peter Hernavs a.k.a. »Padalček« who is a regular on our local Slovene skydiving forum Padalstvo.com and as a pass time likes to »re-shape« local DZ vehicles

In the end I managed to do 6 jumps and the last one was a sunset jump in which we did a speed-star. This is when we exit the plane one by one, very quickly, and then try to join up. It went very well. An awesome way to finish the day!

We finished the day by visiting the DZ bar called The Perfect Spot where we had a nice beer and some free chicked wings – hey, an even better way to end a perfect day for skydiving. I was starting to think about work last night but today I wish I could stay here a bit longer.

As it was a Sunday most of the skydivers wanted to make the most of the day and the DZ became very busy as there were 3 planes flying at any given time (Twin Otter, PAC 820, Skyvan or Porter), today we saw the first appearance of the Skyvan. The problem was that the pilot for the Skyvan was the same as for the Porter so the jumpers who wanted to use the Skyvan were without their favourite plane for a few times during the day.

The photo on the top was made on the last jump where Barbara (white helmet, pink grips), Babi (white helmet, blue/white suit), Gvido (red helmet) and myself (blue/silver suit) made a 4-way formation.

I managed to make 4 jumps and they all went quite well, the last one was even from the Skyvan which turned out to be quite a terrifying experience. We were the first group to leave the airplane but none of us had any idea how to open the door. The team behind us were some Swedes and they did know how to do it either. We found a Slovene freeflyer Igor who saved the day (or the load in this case) and showed us how to do it.

Jumping out of the Skyvan’s ramp was a exhilarating experience and very frightening. I will probably stick to the Otter and PAC from now on. I am still quite comfortable leaving the plane by its side door.

Photo of Skyvan by Tony Danbury

When we arrived there the weather was great but very hot and humid, this place would probably resemble the gates of hell during summer

The winds were picking up and we got a warning from the DZ staff that the landing might be a bit risky, above all we wanted to do an 8-way. Well we did try and we managed to get a 6-way in the end. The landing for me was actually quite good, it was just immediately after the landing I had problems with. After landing uncomfortably close to the airfield’s barbed wire I apparently managed to do that on one of the rare mud patches. As I could not kill the chute straight away I got dragged through the above mentioned mud with a nice effect visible on my jump suit.
Most of us did not land where we should have and some of the 6-way members even landed on the neighbouring golf course. The DZ staff came to pick us all up Needless to say that was the last jump of the day as there was a weather hold for the rest of the day. There was an approaching storm coming from the north – most probably the same one we wanted to avoid in Deland.

After the jump we made a quick visit to Wal-Mart and then to the local sandy beach in the town of Orchid. Here is a snapshot from there…

Še slikica Twin Otterja, ki ga najraje in najpogosteje uporabljamo. O Skyvan-u niti duha ne sluha.

The picture on the left is showing our makeshift hangar – the flag has now been moved to a proper flag post close to the boarding zone – pics to follow

I have been having some problems with my landings and I was planning to do a canopy control course in Deland, but the instructors have not appeared to be very interested so I was lucky to have my old instructor from my home DZ in Prečna here – Aleš Debeljak. He gave me some simple live guidances during my landing and they went great. I was apparently flaring to late and that made my landing quite sore – especially on the knees.

I would also recommend to have you rigged packed by one of the riggers here – it makes jumping much more enjoyable and you can get more jumps in than usual. It is also very good if you have a new parachute that does not like to be packed very much.

The weather was not as nice as previous days so some of the lifts were at a lower altitude than 4.000 m. If this happens – tough, no money back at all.

Tomorrow looks like a bad day for jumping, there is some chance of showers and it will probably be overcast if not completely cloudy.

Most of us, who are doing RW work in the tunnel don’t have much time to do anything else. In fact we just discussing yesterday how we mostly just sleep, fly in the tunnel and eat a little. In any case, I hope my skydiving skills should improve immensely.
I hope it was just down to tiredness but I found myself flipped on my back after trying to do an exercise my instructor Aljaž showed me. It could have been shock really but I couldn’t get myself turned over. It took me a few seconds to make myself do the right manoeuvre I got back on my belly.

Don’t even think that flying in a wind tunnel is easy and not exhausting. My back is VERY sore. However I did manage to get some time and see a bit of Orlando from their buses. The one we used was very interesting and here is a photo to prove it. We passed a very funny building that looked like it was ripped out of the ground and landed on another one. It was probably also a bit of a joke on the hurricanes they tend to get here in Florida. As I was in the bus at the time I couldn’t get a decent photo of it.

I am otherwise surprised how much unusual and different everything is to me here. It is almost I still cannot believe I am in the U.S. It’s so much different from any European country I have visited till now. In fact, till now I have not been outside the European continent, if we count out that trip to Istanbul where I took a touristy boat ride to the Asian side of the city. And it seems that the people who said, that Americans love their SUVs were absolutely correct. The the majority of the population, that don’t have one at home, wished they could have one.
And now to report on the weather: is makes a nice change from the relatively cold and damp Pembrokeshire weather, here is is quite hot during the day with just a bit to cold nights. Well shouldn’t complain, it is mid February!

Photo taken by Daniel Zavratnik in Bovec in August
2007. Viktor Bečan a.k.a. “Som” is the chap on the left in a green t-shirt. In the middle is one of our lovely fellow skydivers and on the right is the legend of Slovene skydiving who runs, in my opinion, the best skydiving school in Slovenia – Aleš Debeljak a.k.a. “Debeli”. For more pictures click on the picture to take you to the Padalstvo.com forum.

Even sader is the fact that at this very moment the pilot is feared dead, the co-pilot survived, but apparently with severe burns. There were no skydivers on board.

I know Ales, who runs it, was planning on sending it to Hungary for servicing. He was also going to re-fit its outer skin.

• Return to skydiving
• pictures on Picasa

She meant a lot for Slovene skydiving and will be very missed. I will try to find out what has happened to the pilots…
————————————-
UPDATE 1!
The news channels have confirmed that the pilot Viktor Bečan (a.k.a “Som”) lost his life in the crash. He will be missed and I would like to express condolances to his family and friends.
I also am sorry for Aleš Debeljak who runs the Paranoia skydiving school and managed the “Fata” AN-2 airplane almost by himself.

News articles:

• Delo.si
• Dnevnik.si
• RtvSlo.si
• 24ur.com
• Siol.net

——————————————

UPDATE 2!

I was angry, but not so surprised to hear some of the more moronic interviews on 24ur.com regarding the supposed unairworthiness of the AN-2. This airplane is definately one of the most safest civilian planes we have even though it looks like your Russian 3rd grade rubbish bin from the inside. It is extremely stable and can land on a penny. It is flight characteristics are great at low speed flights. In many respects it was the best plane to start my first skydiving jumps from and anyone who flew her knew that as a fact.
I am proud to have made 35 out of my 91 jumps from this airplane.

Fellow skydivers’ websites reporting on the incident:

• Peter Lamut (Jeti)
• Black Betty
• Matej Golob

——————————————

UPDATE 3! on 7-May-2010

A final report from the Slovene Civil Aviation Authority has been issued. Read it here.

Here are the basic details of the Deland DZ:

• airfield ID: Deland Municipal Airport (KDED)
• website: skydivedeland.com
• address: 1600 Flightline Blvd., DeLand, FL
• aircrafts: twin otter, skyvan

The DZ is about an hours drive (50 miles / 80 km north) from Orlando, where we will be using the Skyventure wind tunnel.

I will be going in mid-February and arriving at the beginning of March 2008. I will be flying with Virgin Atlantic from London. Hopefully the weather will be stable enough in Florida as it usually is that time of year. Compared to my fellow skydivers who will be traveling from Slovenia, I am quite lucky as I have a direct flight to Orlando and only have to bear the drive from Johnston to Gatwick. My Slovene friends will have to either go through Trieste (and then via Munich and North Carolina) or Munich (via Philadelphia) to Orlando.

No all that is left to do is to specify exactly what to do after the tunnelcamp. This week I received news that I will be in the first group to go in the tunnel so I will do my skydiving and traveling round the southeast US later. Exactly what to do when and where is still up for discussion.

One of the things I always wanted to do was to swim with wild dolphins in the ocean. And by that I do not mean some commercialized scheme where the dolphins are regularly fed at certain locations and we are then brought there to swim with them later. And if all is done “dolphin friendly” I really won’t mind if they don’t bother to show up. Its their lives

There is a program called Dolphin SMART that was put into place to do just that, protect the dolphins against harassment and disturbance. If it turns out that swimming with them is to disrupting, I wont do it.

UPDATE!
I have heard from the organizers of the Tunnelcamp that we have now made reservations for the hotel in Orlando. Its called Orlando Continental Plaza Hotel (formerly known as Riande Continental Plaza). It seems quite comfy. The problem we faced was that the Daytona bike week will be held in that general time period (29. Feb – 9. March 2008) – so hotels are booked up and prices much higher than usual. This is the venue where OCC has also been known to make an appearance.
The other news is that we have finally agreed on the dropzone where we will do our skydiving jumps when we will not be in the tunnel. The DZ will be Deland, so come and see us if you are in the neighbourhood. I will use a separate post to tell you more about this DZ.

Blue skies!